August 2012

Gold medals & the Mummy Midwife

So here we are, a nation with a little bit more time on our hands since the end of the Olympics.

A lot of us have been glued to our screens the last fortnight, ears pinned up when the radio has come on to see how good old Team GB had been getting on.

And didn’t we do well!? 65 medals in total – 3rd in the world. Yes, little old us, this small island bobbing in the sea, came 3rd in the whole world only after the global super powers of America & China. Our team won 29 gold medals, and 5 brits won two gold medals each! It’s rather a remarkable thought.

I hope I’m not the only one who was a bit overcome watching the closing ceremony. It wasn’t just the beautiful voice of Emeli Sande, or the dazzling costumes and brilliant set. It was the scale of human capability. Not only were there the truly outstanding individual achievements that had come as a result of great effort, training, sacrifice and dedication (Ennis, Ainslie, Hoy, Phelps, Bolt, Daley and many more) but also the spectacle of the countries of the globe joining together to celebrate human success and achievement in a joyful and positive event. It’s not very often that we see that, more often than not we watch the news and find war and destruction, violence and conflict. Not at the Olympics, this is an event that brings the world together to unite and compete, support, inspire and encourage one another to do better, try harder, go faster.

And I got to thinking how being an Olympian is not so different to being a Mummy (bear with me, I know it sounds a bit of a stretch!). Olympians are the crème de la crème of the athletes, the best of the best – and they demonstrated the incredible ability in all of us to achieve anything we put our minds to. We all have the ability to work harder, try harder, aim for the top and don’t give up till we get there. Pregnancy and labour could be said to be a bit like that – every Mummy-to-be has to believe in themselves, demonstrate endurance, determination, strength in the face of adversity and an ability to push through the pain while trusting in your team mates to support you. But ultimately you stand strong on your own to achieve something amazing that will always make you proud. Something that may have driven you past the limits that you thought you had, something that has forced you to overcome fears and inhibitions and made you stronger and more powerful than you believed you were – you’ve given birth to a beautiful baby and become a mother, and you are more incredible than ever. And The Baby Journey awards you GOLD GOLD GOLD!